Species Composition and Population Status of Rodents in and Around Yeraba Priority State Forest Northwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

Rodents are successful animals in every continent because of their having comparatively little size, short breeding cycle, and capacity to survive on a variety of food items. Rodents are bioindicators. Therefore, the study on the species composition and population status of rodents in and around Yeraba Priority State Forest, located in northwest Ethiopia, was conducted from September 2022 to February 2023. Based on the vegetation type, the study area was classified into four habitat types, namely, new regenerated forest, plantation forest, farmland, and grassland. Both live-trap and snap-traps were used to capture rodents. By using live-traps, a total of 582 individuals were captured. The total captured individuals belonged to five species of rodents. These species composition were Lophuromys flavopunctatus (44%), Rattus rattus (25.3%), Arvicanthis abyssinicus (23.7%), Mastomys natalensis (6.7%), and Mus musculus (0.3%). Rodents’ species composition and population abundance vary from season to season and from habitat to habitat. Lophuromys flavopunctatus species was the most commonly distributed and abundant in the study area, whereas M. musculus was uncommon and smallest abundant in the study area. The distributions of rodent were significantly different among different habitats. Age classes of rodents vary among habitats and between seasons. During both seasons, adult individuals were represented the highest proportion. The rodent population density varied in different habitats during the wet and dry seasons. Population density of rodents was highest in grassland habitat, while population density of rodents was lowest in plantation forest. The present study showed that there was a statistically significant difference in population density of rodents among habitats. Although different biomass estimates were recorded in different habitat types, their differences were not statistically significant. Generally, the diversity of rodents was lower as compared to other studies; this might be due to different factors such as, clearing forest, overgrazing, and human disturbance. Yeraba Priority State Forest is a home to wildlife that needs conservation measure to save existing biodiversity and maintain the ecosystem.